30 Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes from Startups

What do sweet potatoes have to do with starting a business? Perhaps I learned one of my best lessons from my grandmother Ruth.

It’s not a true Thanksgiving without her special mashed sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows for me. My Grandma Ruth made it every single year, without fail. And it was quite polarizing. There were and are lovers (my cousins, my mom, me) and haters (my husband and stepfather, for instance). The lovers would fight over the marshmallow crispy topping. And the haters just left more for the sweet potato casserole aficionados.

After so much hustling to acquire the remainders, and many years of us scraping the dish, Grandma Ruth would make two batches: one for dinner and one for leftovers.
Sadly, my Gram is not here with us anymore, so my children never met her. However, through her cooking, she taught me at an early age to always have a contingency plan. Sure, have plenty when it’s good, but just in case, you always want to have a back-up plan to rely on. In a small business, schedules can be so topsy-turvy that when it rains, it pours, but sometimes it can be slow for a while. Having that extra tray of sweet potatoes can sure come in handy. I always make sure I have a back-up plan, whether during a presentation or for corporate budgeting.